Thoughts on Open Source, Analytics

Monthly Archives: September 2009

In all seriousness, the book looks great. Will bring it on my next extended plane ride – already saw a brilliant diagram (Figure 9-2 on page 234) that perfectly shows PDIs “streaming” architecture. So, Amazon apparently was trying to exceed expectations (you’ll get by 9/11) but here I have it in hand.

Will put together a more thoughtful review and post it here for those that might be on the fence about buying it. Based on my initial look, I’m sure the book is worth well beyond its price as a practical guide for using Pentaho.

I had an email from a good friend, whom I actually got to know through mutual open source interests, but also by simply discussing topics on my blog. He writes:

Whether you like it or not, twitter is now what blogs were 3 or 4 years ago, and you need to get involved in it, Nick.

Twitter seems like a medium that while easy and fast, is ill suited to the topics I like to blog about. Technical articles, tips, with samples and screenshots seems like it would be tough to get across on Twitter. I tried twitter – actually, ages ago but then deleted my account almost immediately because I just thought it was downright “silly” to “text the world” 150 characters at a time.

What am I missing? My friend quoted above is highly regarded, certainly by me. What am I missing? Why would I want to communicate to the world in medium without image, italics, attachments, etc? Phrasing it more positively, what is the best part about Twitter that makes it work foregoing time spent on this blog for Tweeting instead?